


The Dead Circuit

by FeartheTalon



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: F/M, Imperial politics, Injury Recovery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Space Horror, Space Whales, Survival Horror, space drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:13:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18753382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeartheTalon/pseuds/FeartheTalon
Summary: In the aftermath of a horrible event, Karyn Faro wakes to find the Chimaera under attack and her admiral unreachable. Using her skills and the abilities of the rebel Jedi, Ezra Bridger, she must forge a new path for her crew in order to save them from certain death.





	The Dead Circuit

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to wait after Treason to post this in case it was made AU, but what the hell. It's good to be done with Finals. :)
> 
> More tags will be added as I go along.
> 
> My love and thanks go out to my people: Kal'duram, Lighttrain09, mistressminako, Virgilvirgilvirgil Nightfell and aptrashcompactor. All of who have kindly tolerated my Faro rambling and general writing rants.

It’s the alarms that wake her. Faro shoots up, the top of her body jerking upwards and folding like a collapsed chair; years of subconscious training combined with years of nightmares about a moment just like this reverberate through every molecule of her body. Even so, the process is still difficult, and when she unzips her eyes, she notices the heavy weight that pins her body to the bed. It's a bacta roll and she's the meat-protein supplement of this particular breakfast wrap.

For a moment, she is twenty, back on Malastare during the Clone War, recovering from injuries when she had been thrown against the main bridge console. She had cracked half her ribs and shattered her sternum from the impact. She's dizzy enough from whatever tranquilizers they must have given her, and when she tries to remember why she's wrapped in plasti she can't quite figure it out, but then she looks to her right, and sees Hammerly.

As if by divine revelation, Faro remembers. She can't help but remember. Particularly how Thrawn had stood there and done nothing. 

But there is no time for regret and sad memories. There are only the sirens and the flashing lights that are carving their way behind her eyes. 

She tries to stand, and instead stumbles as the IV rack slaps her on the back. The tubes tangle around her legs like snakes and she drops to her knees.  

"Droid!" Faro bellows, smacking at the wires. She fumbles with the attachment, she's not crazy enough to rip the connection out of her arm. She unscrews the mechanism for the nutrient drip and the top tubes separate, the lead still under the skin of her arm. 

"Commodore?” The droid says as it hobbles over. “How may I be of assistance?"

"Getting me untangled for a start." Stars, droids could be so idiotic sometimes. "What's going on?"

"You seem to have tried to stand without assistance in a weakened state. I would not have advised that---" The droid manages to untangle her with ease. It sits her back on the bed like a child who has misbehaved.

She waves her hand; it bangs weakly against the droid’s carapace. "No, No. I mean out there. What triggered the alarm?"

"I do not know. Of course, I have not been informed, and thus I cannot prepare for any casualties that may happen during this time."

Faro sighs. "Never mind. Where are my clothes?"

"They should be in the drawers adjacent to your bedside."

She swings her legs over the edge of her bed and attempts to stand again. She feels the catheter as she makes it to her feet, stuffed uncomfortably between her legs. The bag slaps awkwardly against her calf. She won't be able to walk very fast like this, with spindly limbs and a tube wedged in just the right way to make her want to constantly take a piss. In the bedside drawers, there is no sign of her uniform, only the gloves Thrawn had given her during her most recent life day. She takes a deep breath. As she slides them on, the leather smoothing over her skin, her anxiety retreats. She is Commodore Faro once more. 

As soon the droid throws a gown over her shoulders, Faro exits the infirmary. The droid complains with every step she takes. She stands in the hall, feeling ridiculous in a hospital gown and her gloves. Screaming officers run in the direction of the escape pods. Mouse droids fling themselves against the walls. Faro’s lips twist angrily as she takes in the chaos. She has trained her crew to be efficient and compose themselves even when everything has gone to shit. After she fixes whatever is going on here there will be some hell to pay.

The ship shakes, and Faro stumbles. Her shoulder slams against the wall, and a flash of pain shoots up her pelvis, another echoes through her shoulder. She extends a clawed hand and latches on to the next person to pass, the tightness of her grip almost flings her to the ground, but thankfully he stops. Faro recognizes him, a young assistant maintenance tech, Mhatt Havok. She had put him in charge of the _ozyly-esehembo_ during their recent mission on Batuu. 

"Report," she orders.

"Commodore?" He gapes at his commanding officer. "You're supposed to be healing!"

_Nine Hells. Not him too_. How many people will she have to grab until she gets an update? She shakes him with as much force as she can muster. "Report!"

Havok swallows at her anger, his adam's apple bobbing in his spindly neck. "Bridger somehow got on board. There's something attacking the ship. Something big."

“Another ship, perhaps?”

“No, It’s a big tentacled thing.”

She has no time for this uninformative poodoo. Instead, she holds out her palm. "Commlink." 

He fumbles at his belt, then drops the commlink into her palm. She switches the frequency to an officers’ channel.

"Ayer, Woldar? This is Faro. Report."

Static fills her ears. _Kriff_.

"Lomar? Pyrondi?" She fiddles with the frequency once more, trying to find a clearer channel.

With a curse, she toddles across the hall and wedges herself against the nearest viewport. She taps the comm a couple of times against the wall as she takes in the scene. They are hovering within a planetary atmosphere, Lothal’s, from the looks of it. Most of the turbolasers are in position for aerial bombardment of the city, but thankfully someone has had the sense to order the rest to swivel and fire at the giant monstrosities attacking the ship. Large purple tentacles slap against the hull of the _Chimaera_ , their suction cups, gripping and tearing chunks of metal from her ship and flinging them into the sky. The power flickers, and the hall darkens then brightens immediately as the emergency backup comes on.

“What in Kriff is that?”

“We don’t know, ma’am. They arrived shortly after Bridger did,” Havok says.

Bridger. The Lothal faction. She wonders if this is some weird rebel biological experiment gone wrong. After the mess at Atollon, Thrawn should have known better to attack when she wasn’t on the bridge. 

"Well it's gotten into the power supply,” Faro says. “If it cuts the emergency, we're dead in the air. We need to get them off this ship." _And perhaps drop them off somewhere they can finish them off with the rest of the fleet and some TIE defenders._

"Commodore?" The comm squelches and familiar deep tones emerge from the speaker; in the background she can hear someone moaning in pain. "Ayer here."

_Thank the stars_. "What's our status?"

"Bridger’s trapped the admiral on the bridge. Doors are sealed. Can't get a visual. I have 3 stormtroopers and a DT unresponsive. More confirmed down inside. Ship is under attack by some kind of tentacled creature. I think they're breached the bridge and opened it to vacuum. I can hear shit flying around in there."

"The rest of the fleet?"

"I don't know. Commander Pellaeon was holding the blockade from the _Death’s Head_. Said they came out of nowhere." 

The _Chimaera_ groans and trembles, and a familiar stomach-churning sensation overtakes Faro’s body. She screws her eyes shut and leans harder against the transparisteel. How can they with the bridge breached? Impossible while they were so far within the planet’s gravity.

"What in the hell just happened?" she says, knowing full well what has just occurred, but not wanting to believe it. 

"Ma’am, I think,” Ayer replies, his breathing suddenly harsher. “I think we've jumped to hyperspace.”


End file.
